Collymore believes Aston Villa’s board are to blame for the club’s struggles.

Speaking to talkSPORT, former Villa striker Stan Collymore has suggested that Tim Sherwood is the worst manager in the club’s history, but still highlighting the fact that he is not to blame for Villa’s recent struggles.

He said: “He [Sherwood] may well have been the worst manager Aston Villa have ever had, but believe you me, at the top of Aston Villa Football Club, Randy Lerner, Tom Fox, Hendrik Almstadt, Paddy Reilly are not fit for purpose.”

Collymore is very outspoken when it comes to how Villa are run, showing his dislike recently at the senior members of staff hired by owner Randy Lerner.

All the management team come from non-footballing positions, but they hold dominance over the playing squad at Villa Park, ultimately deciding who is signed and sold, rather than leaving that to the head coach in charge of the side.

This is the plate Sherwood was served with at Villa Park, being handed a side of a number of signings made over the summer, many of whom he did not want to bring in. The head coach lost Christian Benteke, Ron Vlaar and Fabian Delph, and was forced to build a team from a selection of players thrown together randomly.

Collymore has admitted that Sherwood could realistically have been the worse manager Villa have ever had, and he did little to show during his time at Villa Park that he was good enough for a Premier League job, but he could only work with what was handed to him.

And the people that handed his team to him are not football men, with no history in the sport, and Collymore believes the blame for Villa’s struggles rests entirely on their heads.

Billy Hawkins

Billy is a freelance writer who contributes to various sites concerning football. Known to possess an obsession with statistics, Eastern European club sides, and Victorian football, he focuses upon the untapped potential of the Football League in the belief it is more enjoyable than the Premier League.